Multicellular life began billion years earlier than thought

BEIJING: Chinese scientists have found new fossils of the world's oldest known multicellular organisms, dating as far back as 1.56 billion years, nearly one billion years earlier than the previous record.

The fossils found in carbon-rich compressions in north China's Hebei Province, Zhu Maoyan, who led the research, told state-run Xinhua news agency today.

They show organisms large enough to be visible to the naked eye and predate the diversification of multicellular life by nearly one billion years, the report said.

The findings show that multicellular life with modest diversity populated the early Mesoproterozoic seas, but the species' affinity to extant species remains unclear, Zhu said.

"Further research will shed light on the ancient marine ecosystem," he said, adding that the biggest fossil was 30 centimetre long and 8 centimetre wide.

An article on research by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing institute of geology and paleontology was published today in the journal "Nature Communications.

The Yanshan Mountain region of Qianxi and Kuanxian counties in Hebei has Mesoproterozoic sedimentary mudstone.